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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PAUL E. GONON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ATHANASE GOUGET, OF SAME PLACE.

COMPOSITION OF MATTER FOR MOLDINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 414,208, dated November 5, 1889.

Application filed November 3, 1888- Serial No. 289,908. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PAUL E. GONON, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Composition of Mattor for Moldings, to be used as an imitation of wood, metal, and other materials, and which can be molded in a plastic state into any desired form, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

The composition consists of fibrous orcellular material, an adhesive material composed of glue and starch, soapstone, and a suitable coloring-matter.

To carry my invention into effect, I mix a fibrous or cellular materialsuch as Wood p ulp-with aniline, vegetable, or metallic colors, so as to impart a uniform color of any desired shade to the Wood pulp. The Wood pulp is in nearly a dry state before it is mixed with the color, and after mixing the colored Wood pulp is then sufficiently dry to be powdered by suitable machinery and mixed with about one third soapstone or its equivalent, and with this mass is mixed a binding substance of considerable adhesive strength, such as a mixture consisting of one-third of glue dis solved in two-thirds of starch boiled in Water, these two parts being boiled for a few minutes before being mixed with the mass above described. About twentyto thirty grains of the binding substance-glue and starch-is used for every five hundred grains of pulp and coloring-matter, according to the specific gravity of the pulp. The quantity of this gelatinous substance must be sufficient to form a paste or dough of the mass, which, in a semifiuid or plastic state, can be shaped in molds and left to dry. The dried substance is an imitation of Wood or metal, and its density can be made to equal that of the different kinds of Woods and metals by adding more or less of the soapstone, glue, and starch.

The substance, if not formed into ornamental articles, as above described, can be carved in the same Way that Wood is carved.

It is understood that the mass may be fashioned into articles Without artificial heat or mechanical pressure-as, for instance, after havingbeen applied to awall. The adhesive materials, When combined, allow of the composition being fashioned or Worked into any shape or design, the consistency of the compound enabling this to be done, and when dried Without artificial heat it assumes a very hard form, and the hardening is aided by the soapstone, which also fills the fibrous material and gives the article a hard and smooth appearance.

The above-described substance can be made fire-proof by adding to the colors metallic salts-such as salts of copper, alum, &c.-and if exposed to heat the metallic salts produce a fire-extinguishing fume.

The surfaces of the articles molded from this substance can be electroplated in the usual manner.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new an d desire to secure by Letters Patent-- The herein-described composition of matter, consisting, essentially, of fibrous or cellular material, soapstone, an adhesive material composed of glue and starch, and a suit able coloring-matter, all combined substantially in the proportions specified.

PAUL E. GONON. \Vitnesses:

THEo. G. HOSTER, O. SEDGWIOK. 

